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Thursday, 28 August 2014

Devouring Books: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

After seeing Rainbow Rowell, I read Landline literally over two days (not the day after I saw her, because FRANCES was here which was awesome) because I didn't know how to stop reading it. I never really do with Rainbow, so this wasn't a surprise, but it was pleasing to know that, you know, she's still got it.

Now. I also read Landline about 6 weeks ago, so excuse me if my memory of it sucks. The story essentially goes like this: Georgie McCool (best name ever) is a woman whose marriage to Neal is in trouble because she has to work over Christmas and Neal is a whiny baby. Excuse me if I'm oversimplifying, but that's definitely how things seemed to me at the start of the book, but as it goes on, and we learn more about their relationship, we find out that things have not been right in the state of Rome for a while now. After her family leaves for Nebraska, Georgie finds a connection to the past through her old landline phone, and tries to retrospectively fix, well, everything.

It's actually a weird plot, now that I've written it like that, but it's definitely much better than I've just made it sound. There is SO much that I really loved about it, so let's just get right into that. Firstly, there's Georgie. She's really just trying to do her best, and I love that so much about her. The reason I say Neal is a whiny baby is that she's working over Christmas because this is LITERALLY her one shot at having everything she's ever wanted for her career, and it bugs me that he can't just go 'don't worry about it, we'll just do Christmas after you're done with the work.' PERSONALLY I'm pretty sure this story wouldn't have even happened if Georgie had been a man, and 'needed' to work over Christmas because George's (see what I did there) wife would have gone 'yes dear' and no one would have had a meltdown.

However. It's more complicated than that, and that's really a credit to the story. There are all sorts of elements coming into play, old jealousies and many things from their past that are widely explored along with the present day (which also turns into a storyline from the past... Hmmm...) narrative. And it's so good. Seeing how Georgie and Neal got together in the first place was a welcome shift from the fraught events of the present day, and it was also HELLA cute. You know how it goes.

There are SO many more things I liked about it but in the interests of keeping this short(ish) and sweet, I'm just going to say... It's set at Christmas! I do love an out of season Christmas book, but I love reading a Christmas book at Christmas, too. So what I'm saying is, if you haven't read this yet (and I know you guys, so I know you probably have) I recommend saving it for nearer Christmas time because, even though it's totally not happyhappy all the time, there are parts that will warm your heart so incredibly that you'll want to hug the book and never let it go. Not that I ever did that... Ahem...

AND (I know, but I'm nearly done) oh my gosh the secondary characters. I think we ALL know that Rainbow can write an excellent secondary character (Reagan, anyone?) but Georgie's mum and especially her sister are GREAT, her writing partner Seth is ridiculously smooth (and awesome) and even her kids are chock full of personality. I know that I giggled (OUT LOUD, no less) when I was reading this, and there were so many awesome lines that I just couldn't write down because I couldn't put it down.

So basically- of course this is good. It's better than good, it's awesome, and on the scale of Rainbow Rowell books, it comes... near the top? THEY ARE ALL AT THE TOP (seriously, I don't even know how to rank them or anything because I love them all for different reasons, like how you love your children, I guess). Basically, you've got to read it. Obviously.

13 comments:

Oh, that's funny. I had the exact opposite feelings towards Neal and Georgie. I liked this book, and I *really* liked "reading" it a second time on audio, but both times, I could easily see what Georgie liked about Neal, and I couldn't really understand what Neal saw in Georgie.

When you have kids, I think it's a lot more difficult to reschedule Christmas. I was mostly thinking the whole time that the whole problem would have been resolved if Georgia had just said, "You take the kids and go to your mom's place as planned. I'll stay here and work hard on my tv gig for a week or so, then I'll meet you in Omaha on Christmas Day." Boom. They both get what they want and they both get heard. but as it was, I thought Neal was by far the more sympathetic character.

I did love that Rowell moved so gracefully from writing young adult relationships to the difficulties of sustaining a longer adult relationship/marriage. And of course she was as funny as usual in this one.

That is interesting! I didn't exactly HATE Neal or anything (in spite of the whiny baby stuff...) but I just felt like, how did he not KNOW that it was really important for her to have her own TV show? Like, that's surely more important than ONE Christmas, it's like a lifelong thing. Also I kind of agree with the kids making it harder to reschedule, BUT their kids are pretty young, so... Maybe not as much?

However- considering how things turned out, I agree that the conversation you talk about should have basically been what happened. BUT then again, there wouldn't have really been a story then, so I'm glad they didn't figure it all out straight away!

I cannnn't rank them cause I love them all for different reasons! Like, is Fangirl my favourite because I am basically Cath in a lot of ways? Or is Attachments my favourite because it's just so damn cute? Or is it Landline because OMG everyone is great? Eleanor and Park is still my least favourite, and I don't know why, BUT I still love it!

I just wrote my own comment but blogger ate it so I'm going to sulk and just join this thread instead. If I had to rank I think it'd go Attachments, Landline, e&p, Fangirl. But it's a photo finish so depending on my mood that would probably change order a little. Fangirl was my least favourite, I loved the characters but I thought the ending was rushed.

The only thing that stops me from absolutely going 'FANGIRL IS MY FAVOURITE' is the whole extracts from an imaginary book thing. NOT that it wasn't a good imaginary book, but I feel like people (and by people, I mean people on tumblr) have really run with that element of it rather than going ZOMG LEVI and that annoys me (but isn't really a flaw with the book!) It's interesting that you rank the adult ones first and then the YA ones, and by interesting I mean it proves you're not a teenager, so that's cool.

You've discovered my secret!! Haha, I think I rate Attachmentsent higher because it was my first RR book and because of the 90s rom-com feels. I really, really love E&P but it broke me, I cried so much I don't think I'll be able to reread it anything soon.

It was so good :) And I KNOW RIGHT?! I mean, I would personally be like 'whaaaat?' but at the same time, I would be like 'well, we can do Christmas later, especially since WE'RE NOT EVEN CHRISTIANS' (we definitely won't be Christians, me and my imaginary husband. Just sayin.)

Obviously I'm going to need to acquire this soon, so... before Christmas it is. It's on my 'to order the second my parents go on holiday so I can have all the packages to play with without fear of repercussions' list. Oh, and you should probably know that I bought Orange is the New Black, the book AND the DVD, this week, so I AM FINALLY JOINING THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE. :D

Fuck, there are DVDs of Orange is the New Black? Well ok then (I AM SO EXCITED WATCH IT WATCH IT NOWWWWW) and I fully support your secret ordering of things, even though I probably shouldn't. Addictive personalities, unite!

I thought Landline was good... but it's at the bottom of my Rowell ranking I think. I thought that Georgie and Neal were being equally ridiculous about the Christmas plans thing, and just wanted them to talk it out and get over it... but apparently it was an ongoing issue. I guess I wish the book had been a little longer so that could have been explored a little more? And I thought that Seth and Georgie were both really underdeveloped characters... there was a lot of "Oh, Georgie is the funniest" but that was never shown at all, and Seth was just kind of there. And basically using Georgie and her talent.

Any Rainbow Rowell is great and I definitely read this in about a day, but I had some qualms.